We have been slowly making dietary changes over the last 9 years (depending on what has been available and affordable wherever we are living). 

From corn dogs and pizza rolls in McKinney, TX to fried catfish, sweet tea and McDonald’s (ooh that is so shameful just to type) in Mississippi, we have dropped bad habits one by one and made healthy changes as our lifestyle and budget allowed. 

We were influenced along the way by movies such as Supersize Me (watched in an independent theater in New Orleans with a big bucket of popcorn and a large coke), Food Inc. and FoodMatters, books like Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (both read while nursing tiny Boddhi in New Mexico) and other books later on.

We were also greatly influenced by our own intuition, health and well being, experimenting with eliminations and introduction of foods and testing our own feeling and reaction.  It seems like change has been so slow at times, food addictions, stress and time management pulling us back to old habits, but as a whole we have made so many healthy changes that have really made a difference to our lives. 

Just eliminating MSG and processed foods (for the most part) and reducing sugar and white flour from Boddhi’s diet resulted in eliminating his epilepsy all together.  He went from having seizures every 4 months to every 2 months, and then when we got serious about elimination, none at all.  It has been 10 months since he had a seizure, and he is basically cured as far as the medical world is concerned.

Last fall I eliminated white sugar (totally for the first few months and then reintroduced on special occasions etc. as time went on) and lost 20 lbs without exercising.  I had so much more energy, was in a better mood overall -- and just felt better generally.

I stopped buying traditional bread (white, wheat or otherwise) and began buying only sprouted grain bread (like Ezekiel 4:9 bread).  I also read labels very closely even on organic foods (like tomato sauce) to make sure I was not getting extra sugar in places I did not want it.  I switched all of our peanut butter to organic peanut butter with just peanuts and salt (no sugar no high fructose corn syrup).  I started buying all of our jelly from Sand Creek Farm -- sweetened only with fruit juice.  I even stopped buying the organic, not from concentrate apple juice my family loved.  We stopped buying chips (except for organic tortilla chips which Mike still eats way too many of), snacks etc.  Fruit was our main snack, and we supplemented with cheese, peanut butter, raisins and nuts.  We started eating only grass fed beef (from Sand Creek Farm) once a week -- the rest of the week, I tried to make veggie meals, eating new things my family was not used to -- like eggplant, vegetable curries, bean pastes etc.

There have been times where I felt like I was dragging the rest of my family along through these changes (without full support), but that is not the case anymore -- which happened miraculously and rather quickly in the last month or so. 

This pregnancy has been exhausting, and I have not had the energy to uphold all the high standards for diet that I have had in the past.  I could not think about eating any green veggies the first trimester, and I have just recently returned to some of my former favorite healthy foods. 

If I am the only one who is going to do the cooking, and I feel tired and sick, then we are probably going to eat out or eat a bowl of cereal.  Sugar elimination has been so much harder during pregnancy -- I am craving baked goods again (it must be a third trimester thing because I could not get enough cinnamon rolls in my third trimester with Boddhi), and I don’t want to eat them because I know they make me feel bad. 

I have been in and out of bed the whole pregnancy -- first trimester all day nausea to  low hemoglobin now in the beginning of the third.  There are often times I can barely pull myself out of the bed, much less stand in the kitchen to prepare slow food. 

Dude watched a documentary (on Netflix) about a month ago -- Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, and he has not been the same since.  The movie talks about the benefits of juicing nutrient dense foods --  a juice fast to begin with that will change your palate and your habits.  We got a juicer, and Dude has been a veggie freak ever since then.  So far (in less than 30 days), he has lost 21 lbs of fat and gained 4 lbs of muscle.  His energy is unbelievable (I am so jealous of it).  He went cold turkey on caffeine and has eaten mostly a vegan diet (very little grains, dairy, meat  -- mostly veggies and fruit) since that movie.  He also stopped drinking beer (except for one high quality beer a week).

His newfound energy and good feeling has transferred into giving me tons and tons of help when I most needed it.  He does the dishes, picks up Boddhi’s room, cooks, cleans, shops, runs errands (like bringing me steak even though he is not eating meat) and even offers compassionate support for my ailments.  He is now the leader pulling the rest of us along (for now). 

He is eating things he swore he would never eat (Kale for example!), and I am loving it.  We are moving toward adding (as a goal) 50% of our food as raw food.  We are making tons of superfood smoothies (which are good for me as well).  Dude has been reading David Wolfe and Gabriel Cousens, and we have been watching amazing late night documentaries about healing diabetes in 30 days with Raw food, researching super nutrients for kids (Krill oil Marine Phytoplankton) and all around food miracles. 

My current goal is to get back to no refined sugar (at all!) and drastically reduce and then eventually eliminate white flour foods.  I have a diverse supply of gluten free flours, I have just not felt like experimenting so much lately. 

I am craving meats and protein like crazy -- probably something to do with the low iron -- so I am not making the move to vegan just yet (not in the middle of a pregnancy), but I can definitely add more raw foods. 

Here is a picture of Dude when he started his juicing fast.  He was MISERABLE the first three days (doesn’t he look sad here) -- detox from food addiction, caffeine addiction etc. I have not taken a recent picture, but he looks amazing, thinner, glowing skin, happy eyes.  He looks like himself -- happy, healthy Dude. 

His health and happiness makes me a happy Sadge (even though I feel awful right now and wish I had half his energy). 

If you are interested in learning about juice fasting or raw food diets, here are  (just a few) resources you might want to check out:

Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead is available on Netflix Play Now. 

The website that goes along with the movie is: http://jointhereboot.com/

Food Matters is also available to watch on Netflix Play Now. 

David Wolfe’s website (the raw guy): http://www.davidwolfe.com/

Gabriel Cousen’s website (Columbia Medical school trained M.D. healing diabetes in 30 days guy): http://gabrielcousens.com/

(I cannot believe Cousens is 71!).

Also a raw food family blog: http://www.therawfoodfamily.com/blog/

Health and happiness to all of you!

-- Sadge